


One Last Time

by Kotomine



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Genderbending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2012-11-30
Packaged: 2017-11-19 21:53:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/578039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kotomine/pseuds/Kotomine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shouko gets to go home. Byakuran doesn't want her to leave. And for a few moments, neither does she.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Last Time

Her office looked drab as she looked back from the doorway. Transferring locations had its benefits—she could be closer to home, most importantly—but at the same time, despite the long nights of working and restlessness of it all, the headquarters was a place Shouko almost enjoyed. Nevertheless, boxes of paperwork, hard drives and other necessities were headed now east. She and her assistants would follow them in the morning. 

At the moment, she had elsewhere to be. There were still a few logistics to deal with, alongside saying goodbye to the friends she had somehow made. If someone in her past had told Shouko that she was going to participate in organized crime, she certainly wouldn’t have believed them. But, given the circumstances of current events, she resigned herself to it, careful to not let loose the plans she had covertly discussed. Were anyone to find out that the third most senior officer in the entire organization had allied herself with the enemy, Shouko would be returning to Namimori in a casket.

Shaking the thought out of her head, she continued to laugh at jokes she wasn’t all amused by, agreeing with sentiments she despised. Occasionally she would settle a hand on her aching stomach, pretending that she had laughed too hard. It pained her in multiple ways least of all that she was lying through her teeth. Come morning, however, and she would be able to act more freely and go on with the Vongola plan as needed. The charade was coming to a close as a low-ranking young man from another White Spell squad approached her. Shouko’s presence was needed upstairs.

Her knees were close to giving out as she stood in the elevator. Had Byakuran somehow found out? Despite working in close proximity ever since the founding of the Gesso Family, it was not often that Shouko was called to meet with him personally. Their respective responsibilities had increased even more with the formation of the Millefiore some time ago, so their interactions were limited to video conference calls. Shouko was stressed enough; having to see him face-to-face with the feeling he knew about her betrayal made her that much more uneasy. Nonetheless, she held her head high as she reached the top floor, though her hands shook as she reached for the door.

“Irie Shouko, Captain of the Second Rosa Squad, White Spell, reporting!” she proclaimed, trying her best to stay professional.

“Ah, Shou-chan,” Byakuran said, from somewhere Shouko couldn’t see. “So you are going to see me before heading off to Japan. I’m touched. But I’ve told you before: you don’t need to be so stuffy. It’s not like you at all to be that way.”

She looked around, still finding herself unable to see where he could be hiding. “It’s a matter of propriety, Byakuran-san. You’re my superior, so it’s to be expected.”

His voice got uncomfortably louder. “I haven’t always been.”

Shouko jumped, turning around, red in the face as Byakuran snickered at her reaction. “That was unnecessary!”

“I’m just having a little fun with you, Shou-chan! Ah, but it is nice to know you still haven’t changed much since our time at university. You never have approved of what I’ve done.” Despite the clear disappointment that he was feeling, Byakuran’s smile lingered on as he ambled toward the vast window that revealed the early night sky.

She wanted to quietly comment on how no one could approve of what he had done, and was planning to do. But that was not the time. “You needed me for something?”

“I just wanted to see you one last time before you left in the morning,” he said. “What do you think of these flowers, by the way?”

“They look nice” was the only thing she could think of as a valid response for such a sudden question. “What kind are they?”

“Morning glories. They keep very well; I’ve had them for a while now…” His voice seemed to waver with the last few words. “Don’t be shy now! Come over here.” As Shouko approached, Byakuran reached out to the purple bouquet, and broke one flower off. When she got close, he tucked away some of her hair behind her left ear and planted the flower there as well. “Hm… it suits you, Shou-chan, as I thought.” 

Shouko ignored the flush developing on her cheeks. “We see each other plenty of times.”

“How long has it been, though? Just the two of us, alone like this and having a casual conversation. Besides, liquid crystal displays aren’t a good substitute for seeing someone in the flesh.” Byakuran sat down in front of the window and stared out towards the dark expanse of sky. Miniscule white dots speckled the background, with the moon waning thinly in the distance. “Do you remember the last time you just went and watched the night pass by?” 

“I’ve had work to do since Day One, and you know exactly why.” While she wasn’t angry, Shouko was upset that he so simply fell into a bout of listlessness. Knowing him, though, she figured he was hiding a secret agenda… well, one besides the obvious.

“I’ll admit that your lack of free time up until now is my fault, so I’ll give you from now until your plane leaves tomorrow to do as you please. I can have the Cervello take care of whatever you were doing before you came up if you want.”

They were the last people she wanted to go through her research unsupervised. “N-no! It’s all right, my research can wait. I’m sure those two are busy enough regardless.”

“If that’s the case, then why don’t you stay here with me?” Byakuran reached for her arm as she tried to stand up.

“I thought your offer stated that I could do as I pleased.”

“I’ll ask with a ‘please’ if it’ll convince you to stay.”

“…You’re hopeless.”

It was as if the past few years hadn’t happened. They were back in college. She was dealing with his ridiculous antics; he was taking advantage of that soft spot she had for him. It wasn’t a big deal. They were friends. She thought so.

Byakuran didn’t let go of her. His grasp shifted to Shouko’s hand, who thought nothing of it despite her initial surprise. “Shou-chan.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t leave.” While his eyes remained on the window, his grip grew tighter.

“But you asked to go to the base—”

“Now I’m asking you to stay.”

Shouko was starting to become annoyed. Even after knowing him so long, this sort of behavior from him was strange. She turned to him. “Byakuran-san, please be reasonable and make up your mind,” she asserted.

Byakuran said nothing as he turned to face her. 

She wasn’t unaccustomed to the way his lips felt on hers. It wasn’t something Shouko was particularly proud of. Byakuran used to always do this— kiss her to serve as a distraction from his stealing a bite of her food or sneaking some childish note into her books or stealing her headphones for the thousandth time. But it was different this time. Before, they were fluttering little pecks that meant to tease her into a blushing embarrassment. This time it lingered, even if only for a few seconds longer. Shouko saw that he wasn’t joking around. Not now.

“Byakuran-san…?” She was outright confused.

He couldn’t help but laugh. “No good, then? As expected from Shou-chan.” His head fell slowly into her lap as he went to lie down on the floor. “Even the unexpected doesn’t surprise you now. I thought you would react differently to a first kiss, but I suppose it probably wasn’t your first.” Byakuran looked exhausted as he languidly swung an arm over his face, shielding his eyes from her view. 

“Don’t be like that!” Shouko protested vehemently. “And why are you saying this like that all of a sudden? No matter what you try to say, you were the first and have been the only person to ever try to kiss me—wait, why am I even saying this? I shouldn’t have to tell you! You’ve always been the one clinging to me, one way or another.”

“And yet you let me.” Byakuran reached up to stroke her cheek, smiling all the while. “Why is that?”

“Only because I trust you can act like an adult some of the time,” she reasoned. Her hand reached for his, at first to pull it away. But instead, she found herself holding it tenderly, leaning into it before snapping out of her daze and recomposing herself.

“…Try again.”

“Try what, Shou-chan?”

Shouko stumbled over her words. “That… thing. The kiss. Yeah. I’ll… try to do my best as well.”

Byakuran quickly sat back up. “You shouldn’t force yourself for my sa—”

“I’m not. I want to see what it’s like. An… actual, real kiss, I mean.”

“Are you sure?” He looked her straight in the eye, so as to gauge her intent. The distance between their faces was far closer, she realized, than Shouko originally thought. 

She gulped. “Yes, I am—”

Her reaction time was much slower than she anticipated. Their lips were together again, but that wasn’t all. His parted opened slightly, his tongue poking out just slightly to trace the edge of her bottom lip. She hesitated, unsure what to do; he noticed. Their mouths were almost clasped together clumsily, they had tumbled onto the floor by his fault, and Shouko had trouble breathing as the kiss continued. She didn’t break away, and she didn’t know why she wouldn’t. She could taste sweet wine in his breath, but she knew he wasn’t even close to being drunk. The inside of his mouth was warm his teeth kept nipping at her tongue. She should have asked him to stop. It had gone too far; she didn’t know what to do. Why he even tried in the first place made no sense. Shaking, Shouko stretched her hand out to tug hopelessly at Byakuran’s sleeve.  
He pulled back, horrified that he had crossed a line he hadn’t meant to. She hadn’t seen such a distressed look on his face before. It pained her to look at it, so she turned to look elsewhere as they got up from the floor.

“Byakuran-san, I… I have to go.” Despite all this, Shouko still remembered why she had to leave. She couldn’t stay; she couldn’t do anything knowing what he had planned; as such, she couldn’t forgive him. Even if he pleaded with her or appealed to her kindness, she was not a kind enough person to do that. A sudden kiss would not save the world, or any of the other myriad worlds he had destroyed. “I need to gather my last few things before too long.”

“So you are leaving,” Byakuran said, his voice deprived of its usual bounce. “What a shame. I wanted to play with you a little longer.”

“This isn’t a game,” she said matter-of-factly. “Maybe… if things were different, I wouldn’t need to leave.” Shouko bowed at the door before leaving, meekly and not looking at him all the while. The purple flower in her hair fell to the ground, but she didn’t notice. “Goodbye.” 

Byakuran walked over to pick the flower back up. He focused on her as she walked farther and farther away until her form disappeared into the distant elevator. She wouldn’t come back, he knew that. She wouldn’t suddenly come running, realizing how he felt. It always used to be a joke, the way he flirted with her, the times he called her cute. The boy had cried wolf too many times. And now the boy was alone, his only company being the morning glories that were beginning to wilt alongside him. 

“Bye bye.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work both here on AO3 and for the KHR fandom in general... sorry for the Rule 63? And for those curious about the flowers... a quick search online should bring up somethings about the language of flowers. Yay symbolism?


End file.
